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Marabou On the Drop
Clear, wadable water enticed me to a long river pool with several deadfalls that I expected to harbor bass. I was wrong. The submerged branches were full of crappies that had migrated upstream from the reservoir that the stream feeds. Mini Minnies in white/silver counted to a depth of 3 feet before imparting short, slow strips brought aggressive strikes. If the vertical drop was intercepted before reaching 3 feet the fish tended to be a bit small, but when the fly was able to fall just a few counts deeper the crappies were in the 10- to 12-inch range. I released them all but I lost count about an hour before my last cast. Just lovin’ spring!
The Vertical Drop Wins Again
Lots of rain and roller-coaster temperatures left the water in my “go-to” pond high and discolored, but the 87-degree afternoon lured me out with my fly rod. Casts to deep wood structure were ignored despite numerous fly changes. Finally, I theorized that the darkened water protected the fish’s eyes from the intense sunlight and that the warmest water would be in the shallows. I tied on a chartreuse Bully’s Bluegill Spider that would be most easily visible and cat parallel to the shoreline. The fly was repeatedly hit on the verticle drop. Thirty bluegills, most over 8 inches, made deep bends in my 3-weight before I released them. It’s been a tough spring, but fishing is still the best part of it.
Lovin’ a Spring Pool
A break in the weather sent me to a spring’s entrance to a well-structured pool. The river was higher than normal by a few inches leaving the area wadable while creating large, slow eddies both above and below the spring’s flow. Deadfall branches border the upper eddy and bowling ball-sized rocks are scattered through the lower one. Full-sinking line that sinks at 3 i.p.s. carried a size-10 gray-over-silver zonker with a double mono weed guard to the deepest tree branches. The second cast brought a strike that was missed. The next slow retrieve produced the hookup of fat green sunfish. Several others came to hand before a 10-inch largemouth was brought to the net. A move to the downstream eddy changed the game as three rock bass preceded a tug of war with a feisty 12-inch smallmouth that sent me ashore with a big smile.
Fishing the Rocky Branch
The rapid onset of winter weather has slowed the warmwater fishes’ metabolisms. In the hope of locating river fish that have entered spring branches to feed, I waded into a familiar spring pool with a constant 54-degree water temperature and began casting down and across the current with size-12 nymphs. Twenty minutes without a hit led me to a large slow eddy and a fly change to a size-10 white/silver Mini Minnie. The first strip of line was halted by a firm tug which led to the landing of a chunky Rock Bass, locally known as Goggle Eye. Eight more came to hand before the action ceased. Further upstream on the spring branch I went fishless as the warmwater immigrants had not yet moved that far.